UPbeat

News for and about University of Portland faculty and staff.

STEM Education

Education Day is Back! (Nov. 16)

The UP Athletics Department, the School of Education, and the UP STEM Education and Outreach Center are hosting Education Day again on November 16, 2023. We expect approximately 500 kids from grades 2-7 to attend. Our visitors will spend about an hour, from 9:30 a.m.-10:45 a.m., engaging in hands-on educational activities on the track in the Chiles Center, and then will stay for a UP Women’s Basketball game versus Warner Pacific.      

 Day-of Logistics  

  • Table set up begins: 8:45 a.m.  
    • Kids and teachers arrive: 9:30 a.m.  
    • Hands-on activities on the track: 9:30-10:45 a.m.  
    • Transition to game: 10:45-11:00 a.m.  
    • Women’s Basketball: 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.  

We’ve had great success with this event in the past, and we hope you will join us and host an activity. Last year we had everything from bug tug-of-war to dance party and body movement to civil engineering, but all ideas are welcome. Students and faculty are invited to host tables, so please share this information with student clubs as well. This is a great opportunity for outreach with local kids.  

Please see the flyer and sign up to host a table (or tables) below:

SIGN UP HERE

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Stephanie Salomone (salomone@up.edu), UP STEM Center, or Joshua Craggs (craggs@up.edu), UP Athletics.  

Education Day (Nov. 30) 

UP Athletics and the STEM Education and Outreach Center are sponsoring an Education Day for local elementary school students on Wednesday, November 30, and we are looking for faculty and students to host table activities. We anticipate 500 students coming to campus from 9–11 a.m. to participate in hands-on STEAM activities, followed by attendance at a UP Women’s Basketball game. For more information, please contact Stephanie Salomone (salomone@up.edu) or Joshua Craggs (craggs@up.edu). To register to host a table, go to https://bit.ly/UPEducationDay2022 .  

Please pass this information on to student groups who may be interested in participating. 

New Grant For STEM Education

engineering grantThe University of Portland, working with Impact NW and the Portland Metro STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) Partnership, has secured a $75,000 grant from Work Systems, Inc. The project, according to mathematics professor Stephanie Salomone, includes writing curriculum to help prepare youth in Multnomah and Washington counties for four high-needs career pathways: infrastructure, manufacturing, information technology, and health care.

The curriculum will be taught in a 10-week course, starting in January, 2016 and involving about 60 students total in Washington and Multnomah counties. The students are classified as “opportunity youth,” young adults ages 16-24 who have left school already or are at high risk of dropping out of school. The goal of the program, according to Salomone, is not to get them back into school or to get them a General Education Development (GED), but rather to open their eyes to possible career pathways and start training them to move away from jobs and toward careers.

The project will serve as a pilot program during the first year, and the goal of Work Systems, Inc., is to eventually make its curriculum available statewide. Work Systems, Inc. is a non-profit organization that pursues and invests resources to improve the quality of the workforce in the City of Portland, and Multnomah and Washington counties.

For more information contact Salomone at 7799 or salomone@up.edu.